Rhetorical Devices In Animal Farm

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A rhetorical device is a technique used in writing that helps the author persuade the reader toward the topic the author is writing about. Rhetorical devices are also used to help the reader identify the argument that the author has and what stance he or she has on it. The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is a fictional story of a farm that has been taken over by animals and is now run in the form of a dictatorship with total equality for all members. This may seem like a simple story but it has a underlying meaning behind it and the use of rhetorical devices helps readers to decode the message that George Orwell is writing about. These devices are used by Orwell to expose communism and all its evils. The devices that best help the reader …show more content…
Through the whole book the animals on the farm can be seen using repetition of the word Comrades: “Never mind the milk comrades… Comrade snowball will lead the way.. Follow comrades, the hay is waiting” (26). His use of this repetition helps him to make his point by reminding readers that he is really writing about the soviet union and communism and not just a fictional story about a farm. In the soviet union ,at this time, a word to recognize a friend or brother is the word comrade. Orwell uses this repetition to subtly remind the readers that the animals are actually representing soviets, which helps to prove his point of exposing …show more content…
In the opening chapter of the book Orwell begins by introducing Old Major, a pig that lives on the farm, who is supposed to be representing Karl Marx, the creator of communism. Old major calls all the animals to the barn and tells them of a dream he had of a farm with no humans and where every animal is equal: “Alll habits of man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are brothers… All animals are equal” (11). His use of anthropomorphism helps him to prove his point by giving readers a opportunity to match which leader goes with which animal and why that is so. It also helps the reader to identify what kind of person these leaders were, this you are represented by a cunning animal then you were probably cunning yourself. If you were represented by a wise animal then you would probably also be wise and so on. This is especially evident in the case of napoleon who is representing Joseph Stalin. Napoleon is a very cruel leader on the farm who demands perfection and is really only looking out for himself instead of the people, so was Stalin. In conclusion, rhetorical devices certainly help when trying to suitably explain a complex idea or topic much like Orwell did in Animal Farm. Not only did these devices help the author to get